Netflix Blocking, Google, Android, and Donald Trump

Netflix has now confirmed that they have begun blocking Android phones that have been rooted and/or even have unlocked bootloaders from downloading the Netflix app from the Google Play Store. While the app can still be sideloaded and still runs, we can reasonably assume that this is a temporary reprieve in those respects.

Let’s be crystal clear about what’s happening here. Google is moving their Android security framework in directions that will encourage popular app creators to broadly refuse installation on rooted/bootloader-unlocked phones.

This will inevitably put all users at greater risk by making it impossible in a practical sense for most concerned users to modify their phones for protection against malware, spyware, and government intrusions.

Despite the valiant efforts of Google toward making the Android environment a safe one, we are living in a time where a sociopathic fascist controls the federal government. We cannot tolerate total control of our phones being in the hands of any individual firms, even benign ones like Google.